Can you legally drive after mot failure

Nodding_Donkey

prowla wrote: »

I wonder what happens if you take out the back seats?

You need to remove the seatbelt as well.

ellie99

Bumping this thread to ask if anyone knows if this rule has recently changed?

Government website link


https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test

says

"Driving a vehicle that’s failed

You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to:

have the failed defects fixed
a pre-arranged MOT test appointment"


Page was updated on the 29th September.

Is this something they've sneaked in without any publicity, or have I just not been looking in the right places?

Not much point taking a car for test early , might as well leave it the full 12 months.

Retrogamer

Nothing has changed apart from their wording.

It was because idiots would go in, have the car fail on serious things then drive it about on the road after it because the existing MOT was still valid.
Some people think a valid MOT means they don't have to have the car roadworthy.

If your car fails an MOT but it isn't something which would cause danger or be an offence on the road, you can still drive it around without any problems.

Ebe_Scrooge

Hmm, an interesting one. I think RetroGamer has hit the nail on the head - especially as the bit on the end of that quote says


"You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition."


My interpretation of that would be that if the MOT highlights something that make the car dangerous, then you would be fined for an unroadworthy vehicle if stopped. I think, notwithstanding the "seatbelt" example given by the OP, most things that cause an MOT failure do, by default, make the car unroadworthy.


The bottom line hasn't changed :


(1) You must have a valid MOT in place, and
(2) Irrespective of the "state" of your MOT, you can be done for driving an "unroadworthy" vehicle at any time.


Of course, if you have a valid MOT then you won't get pinged by an ANPR system just for having no MOT. But if you were to be stopped for some other reason and they found defects then they'd do you for the defects as well as whatever else you were stopped for.

londonTiger

it depends on the tester, they will let you drive off to get repairs down when legally they'e not supposed to.

They will do that because they dont want you to leave your car with them.

londonTiger

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Hmm, an interesting one. I think RetroGamer has hit the nail on the head - especially as the bit on the end of that quote says


"You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition."

hugely exxagerated, the regular plod just arent bothered with this at all. Only police who will care are specially trained traffic cops and they won't go fishing too deep. They will check tyres, mirrors etc. The most obvious ones that they can tell easily. They wont start digging arond and look at the underside of your car to look for rust.

On another forum I posted about how I almost forgot my MOT until just 3-4 days before expiry. Loads of people responded how they went without MOT for 6 weeks+. I dont think MOT is something that's flagged on ANPR. maybe this has chanced since - but clearly loads of people driving around with lapsed mot and haven't been pulled over.

Also I haven't seen a "banger" in a very long time. When I was young it was quite common to see cars which have been severly neglected with broken windows, trim falling off, grey tyres (from age), mismatched color panels etc.

These days you'll see a really old golf, corsa or pugeot 206 - nothing cosmetically wrong with it, just really old and out of date design.

BigBopper

londonTiger wrote: »

it depends on the tester, they will let you drive off to get repairs down when legally they'e not supposed to.

They will do that because they dont want you to leave your car with them.

Do they have a legal power to stop you?

Retrogamer

londonTiger wrote: »

it depends on the tester, they will let you drive off to get repairs down when legally they'e not supposed to.

They will do that because they dont want you to leave your car with them.

Why would they not want you to leave the car with them? Most MOT places will do repairs as well. It's in their interest to keep it there if possible as it will generate more work for them.

They can advise you not to drive it, but that's as far as their influence goes.

londonTiger wrote: »

On another forum I posted about how I almost forgot my MOT until just 3-4 days before expiry. Loads of people responded how they went without MOT for 6 weeks+. I dont think MOT is something that's flagged on ANPR. maybe this has chanced since - but clearly loads of people driving around with lapsed mot and haven't been pulled over.

I'm not sure if the regular ANPR cameras scan for MOT status automatically but i know a few people who have been pulled over by police because they done a check and it flagged up the car had no MOT.

BigBopper wrote: »

Do they have a legal power to stop you?

Definitely not

Joe_Horner

londonTiger wrote: »

it depends on the tester, they will let you drive off to get repairs down when legally they'e not supposed to.

They will do that because they dont want you to leave your car with them.

No, they'll do that because they have absolutely no power to stop you and, legally, have to let you go if you want to.

You could have the suspension collapsed, no brakes, and the exhaust plumbed into the air vents and they still have no power to stop you driving away.

[Deleted User]

Quentin wrote: »

Your MOT is valid until it's expiry date irrespective of any failures prior to that date

Wrong.

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test

Driving a vehicle that’s failed

You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to:

• have the failed defects fixed
• a pre-arranged MOT test appointment

You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.



EDIT, should have read all the replies first, I see this has been covered.